Mike DelGaudio

Perhaps you are trying to decide if publishing a book via Lulu is right for you. I have previously created a Lulu hardcover and here are my impressions of the book.

A while back I wrote a children’s book. Well, not so much a children’s book, but a book specifically for my son. It was based on a bedtime story that had evolved improvisation-ally over a few nights. It got to the point where I had to repeat the same made-up story every night for a few weeks. I thought I would make that fun little ritual into a permanent memory by turning the story into a book.

I had to make a choice on publishing, and in the end selected Lulu for this particular project. Why? One reason. The cover.

Since this was a book for my 4 year old, I knew the book had to be durable, and my normal go-to publisher blurb only offers full color covers as a dust jacket. Dust jackets and 4-year-olds go together like paper and scissors. Its not pretty.

So, if you can actually create a book with Lulu (which in my experience is a lot more difficult than Blurb — you have to know how, and be able, to properly create a PDF to certain technical requirements, for one), it is a good choice if you need a full color cover, and excellent printing.

First, lets examine the cover itself. With Lulu you can opt for a “casewrap” cover. This means that the cover is full-color and glossy, bonded right to the hardcover itself. This makes for an attractive, durable finish. After a year it has stood up well to the abuses afforded it by a young kid. You can feel the ink on the cover. Printed areas, especially black lines make a distinct bump on the page as you slide your finger over it.

Inside of the cover you can see that the binding is a linen or cloth.

Looking inside the book, you can see that the pages are stitched together. Some other book makers (most photo-book producers) just glue the pages into the book.

This is also evident looking at the bottom of the book, you can see that the book is stitched together. A stitched binding is likely to be more secure than just adhesive over the long term.

The printing also seems to be different that in other services. This article on kk.org notes that the printer is a Xerox iGen3, which uses a different process than blurb.

Compared to Blurb, the “dots” that make up the image are much, much smaller. Even the best eyes will have difficulty discerning the individual dots that make up the image. I had to use a magnifying glass in order to get this picture.

The paper used for the individual pages are not glossy or reflective — which is different than the photo book services. This is because Lulu books are not specifically photo books, but more general purpose books. For example, the books could also be used to publish a novel, and you don’t want glossy paper for that. That said, the paper used is durable, bright and not flimsy.

I couldn’t capture a picture of it, but the printing process does have slight variations in the reflectivity of ink/toner used in the printing process. Solid black is EVER-SO-SLIGHTLY glossier than other colors. this is very, very slight. I only noticed it under scrutiny for writing this post. it may be due to the dry-toner process. This may also be true of other solid colors… my illustrations were watercolors so the colors are not as rich as a photo might be.

Once you get the final product, you’ll find a book printed by Lulu is a quality product. I found the actual book creation process to be more difficult than my other photo books, and required more technical expertise to get the book created. It may not be satisfactory for a photo book as the pages are not as heavy or glossy, but the books are well made and are “real” books.

Here are the details on the book, directly from Lulu:
8.25″ x 10.75″, casewrap-hardcover binding, 80# white interior paper, full-color interior ink, 100# white exterior paper, full-color exterior ink

[tags] lulu, blurb, self-publishing, book[/tags]